The present invention relates to a cleaning device for cleaning an object to be cleaned by sliding a cleaning member in contact with the object, and more particularly, a cleaning device for cleaning the object by sliding a belt-form web in contact with the object.
As a conventionally-used cleaning device for cleaning the object by sliding the cleaning member in contact with the object, known is a cleaning device for cleaning unfixed toner undesirably attached onto a surface of a fixing roller (incorporated in a fixing device of a copy machine) by sliding a belt-form web in contact with the surface.
The cleaning device of this type has a feed-out shaft around which the belt-form web is wound, a rewind shaft for rewinding the web fed out from the feed-out shaft, a pressing member for pressing the portion of the web, which is fed out from the feed-out shaft to the rewind shaft, against the surface of the fixing roller. All of the feed-out shaft, the rewind shaft, the web, and the pressing member are integrally housed in a case.
While the copy machine is in operation, the web is pressed against the surface of the rotating fixing roller by the pressing member, thereby cleaning the unfixed toner attached onto the surface of the fixing roller. After completion of a series of copy operations, the web is fed out from the feed-out shaft by a predetermined length and rewound by the rewind shaft. In this way, an unused portion of the web is pressed against the surface of the fixing roller by the pressing member.
However, in the conventional cleaning device mentioned above, when a relatively large amount of toner is attached onto the surface of the fixing roller, more specifically, when a paper jam occurs, it is impossible for the normal cleaning operation mentioned above to clean the surface of the fixing roller completely. In this case, a problem is raised during the next copying operation. A copy image output on a medium is spoiled.